The advantages of keeping a celebrity adoption secret

It's been reported that Sandra Bullock secretly adopted a second child. While there's no official confirmation, adoption attorney David Radis tells ET it's understandable why Bullock may want to wait before going public with the news.

"There's no legal reason that an adopting parent would be overly concerned during the post-placement period," Radis said. "But that's not to say they're not worried about it, because I think psychologically they worry until the adoption is finalized."

As for Bullock, she went to extremes to protect her first child Louis, whom she adopted in 2010.

"She used dark cars and decoys," People's J.D. Heyman told ET. "Doctors appointments were sort of like CIA operations. In order to get Louis to the doctor they wanted to make sure that nobody knew she had this little baby with her. She would go to fittings at hotel rooms, and she would tell friends her house was under construction. She really did make sure that nobody knew."

Another celebrity strategy to keep an adoption secret is to adopt overseas like Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Madonna adopted Mercy, 9, and David, 10, from Malawi, while Jolie adopted Maddox, 14, from Cambodia, Zahara, 10, from Ethiopia and Pax, 11, from Vietnam.

"Every adoption is beautiful. Every way of having a child is beautiful," Jolie told ET. "But to me there's been something special about these countries that need a lot, because I tend to go back to the countries my children are from and work on the countries and work inside the countries."